


Accidental Warrior

by lou2



Category: Bleach
Genre: Conflict Resolution, Gen, Heavy Angst, Internal Conflict, Self-Reflection, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 05:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15260133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lou2/pseuds/lou2
Summary: High at the top of the fifth tower, Orihime reflects on her plight and her choices.Takes place right after manga chapter 315.





	Accidental Warrior

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ June 2008.
> 
> Written for Bleach contest prompt - “A blessing is a curse in disguise”
> 
> This short story is the way I wanted Orihime to blossom. Maybe not necessarily this soon in the manga, but at least by the end.
> 
> I did not read the last manga arc, but I've heard that Orihime never did become the warrior I always thought she could be.
> 
> This is for those of you who always wanted Orihime to stand tall in battle beside all her friends.

She used him to save Tatsuki the day her powers manifested. The one and only time she had ever successfully used Tsubaki and she had seen him and the other Shun Shun Rikka as nothing less than the gift they were.

Ichigo’s influence and leaking reiatsu had enabled her latent abilities to manifest and save the one true friend she had. Since then, her Shun Shun Rikka had sheltered, healed and saved countless friends and even a few enemies.

Unfortunately, now her powers felt less like a reward and more like a yoke. Ever since that day in soul society when she had been unable to use them to kill; her thoughts had been eating at her. No matter how deserving or evil, she couldn’t use her powers to maim or destroy.

It had started weighing on her so heavily that she no longer felt the ability to hold her head up. Once, only once since she first saved Tatsuki had she used Tsubaki with killing intent against an Arrancar. She had done such a poor job of it, that he had been damaged to the extent that he nearly died and nothing could be done to help him until she met Hachi. His kidou had saved Tsubaki and the portion of her soul that he belonged to.

Everyone told her she wasn’t cut out for battle. Urahara had tried to warn and protect her by sending her off to soul society. Kurosaki-kun never said it aloud, but his actions always made it very clear; he did not think she had the ability to save herself. Rukia, perhaps, understood her burdens better than anyone.   Kuchiki-san had at least tried to help train her and make her stronger; had encouraged her to fight and use her own powers.

Still, nothing she did lived up to the awesome responsibility of the capacity of her Shun Shun Rikka.

Protecting and healing were so natural and such a part of who and what she was and wanted to be. However, this other force, much smaller to be sure, was infinitely more dangerous and unstable than even her flighty imagination and was a constant press on her soul.

What was she to do with an ability that could literally wipe a person or soul from existence? How could one being be given the curse of this power? It should be a capability even beyond a god, but here it was, inside her; a mere mortal girl with above average intelligence, over active imagination and the inability to use it even to help her friends.

When she thought she had been rescued, she breathed a sigh of relief at not having to confront her demons anymore. Then Stark had recaptured her and dragged her to this tower. Now she was back to being locked away and guarded by Ulquiorra. She knew Kurosaki-kun would be the one to come after her once more. Not out of love like she wished but as an obligation to one of his friends; a friend that needed his protection, not one that fought by his side.

As she gazed out a different window from a different height at the exact same moon she had stared at a thousand times before, she asked herself yet again; when was she going to take charge of her own destiny? When was she going to stop being afraid all the time? Afraid for her friends, afraid of dying, afraid of disappointing everyone she loved and afraid of this skill that was more a burden than a blessing; simply because she lacked the guts to even understand it let alone use it.

Was there anything weaker than the inability to save yourself when you had more than the means to do so? Would she always be the damsel in distress? Would Kurosaki-kun see her differently, see her as  _more_  if she saved herself? Or would he just see a murderer?

He seemed so much more enamored with Rukia, and although he still berated himself when the petite shinigami was hurt, he always gave Rukia the opportunity to fight and protect herself first. Maybe that was the answer to get him to see her as more than the girl in the ivory tower in need of rescue.

She turned from that unnatural moon through the bars so high to stare at a hollow, an Arrancar, an Espada, and a very powerful one at that. How much killing intent would she need to send Tsubaki to wipe Ulquiorra from existence? Was she strong enough yet?

She felt her powers grow every minute she was in Heuco Mundo and it scared her. Looking at this very stoic and nearly blank Espada before her, she began to wonder if she was starting to have more in common with him than her best friend Tatsuki.

If she did this thing she was contemplating would she be irrevocably changed for the worse or the better? Would she be forgiven for using a power she had begun to associate with evil even though it was a part of her own soul?

She knew nothing in her behavior had given her away. She looked as beaten and despondent for Ulquiorra as she ever had, but something in her intent had changed and she worried that he would sense that.

She worried because she had finally decided this gift, this blessing to heal and shelter had come with a price. It was an affliction on her soul that could only be lifted if she became who she was truly meant to be; a true warrior, one who could heal, guard, protect and yes, kill when the time and circumstances warranted it.

In her head all she could hear was Tatsuki saying, “Come back to me.”

So, she imagined that’s who she was protecting with this action, not herself, not even Ichigo, but Tatsuki, her best friend, her confidant, her surrogate sister and her only family.

The worry melted away and determination built and filled her soul like never before. With Tatsuki’s face firmly fixed in her mind, she knew there was no way she would let Aizen, Ulquiorra or anyone else harm the last precious person in her life. Good or bad, right or wrong, she had made her decision and for the first time in her life there was absolutely no hesitancy and no indecisiveness in her focus or choice.

**Author's Note:**

> If you happened to read this and liked it, a kudos would be happily appreciated.
> 
> Comments are wonderful, but completely unnecessary.


End file.
